After the festival evrything turned peacefull again, everyone returned home and the adventurers left to go experience more of the world.
Hunters returned to hunting, farmers were back in the fields toiling, gatherers ,butchers,traders and so on, were all working again.
Life was moving on, and years were passing.
At 5 years old Teclos started learning his fathers trade a bit more, he also read most of the usefull books completely. Ranging from herbs, traps, basic wood working, hunting, to all the animals and monsters around them. And generally understanding this world and mana more.
At 8 years old he "officially" did the ritual and showed his parents the Darkness mana. With all 3 circles in each of the locations almost complete already, he choose one field to go ahead with and fully make the circle.
Choosing the circle to strenghten his body and growth -his abdomen as the foundation because he was still young.
Astonished at Tecloses speed in forming a circle which one could sense, as the aura around the person changes,tho exactly pinpointing which circle or how manny was close to immposible. Talmir took him out hunting, just small game in a generally safe area but still.
From those hunts and a bit of teaching from Talmir he learned basic handling of the bow and swordsmanship.
At 10 years old he already completed all 3 circles in all 3 locations and even made a second one in the abomen, choosing that as the standard path of his growth.
He noticed all the changes that were brought with the complete circles. When 80% or even half complete, there were noticable changes but it paled in comparison once the circle was actually formed. Everything was enhanced, sight, smell, hearing, mana regeneration, faster mana flow and strenght, just like the book said. At 10 years old he was basicly as strong as a healthy adolescent teenage boy from his previous world, with a twist that the overall senses were better.
It got him basicly addicted to training and gaining strenght.
This also meant that Saldia and Talmir were more perceptive than he initially thought, so he began being more cautious around them.
At 14 years old he was already seen as a never before born genius atleast from this village, having 3 circles in the abdomen and 2 in the heart and head, making him a 7 circle mage and for comparison the average adult was a 7-8 circle mage. His growth speed also wasn't stoping anytime soon.
At about 178 cm and still growing, he had long black hair the same colour as his father, a lean and ripped body from all the hunting, training and circles, hazel coloured eyes same as his mother, and was in general considered handsome.
He was starting to get a bit conceited and arrogant tho, as there wasn't a person that could rival him, present in this village...sure the adult hunters were still stronger than him but anyone of the same age was weaker.
Altho he was abit arrogant, he treated the peopple around him fairly well. Which gave him a noble aura, only a little tho as his table manners and vocabulary were quite lacking.
But it still got him some friends, Gillard and Ralph.
Teclos was technically older by a few months but in reality all of them were the same age...well the same age in this life. Gillard was the son of the village blacksmith and Ralph was the son of another hunter.
With Gillard providing them with some basic leather armor and short swords, Ralph providing them with herbs from his mothers stall and Teclos being the leader of the three and in general being the most capable fighter. They went to the forest every day to hunt small game or sometimes even hunt a lone spike boar.
Teclos could sense all the shadows around them in a fairly wide area, with this he found a shadow resembling a spiked boar. They went abit further towards the boar to see if he could sense other boars but it was luckily alone, so he stoped both of his new friends and considered how to kill it easily.
Whispering he said,
"There is a boar ahead of us about a 100 metres away, the wind is just right so it won't notice us and it's alone. Gillard go from the right, Ralph go from the left and i'll take the middle lets do it like usual."
While they did split up to surround it, they always stayed around 100metres away from the boar and the wind from the front.
The boars had peculiar senses ,while their sense of smell was excelent ,the hearing and sight were ....normal or just above normal but in turn they had very tough upper hide.
Sneaking up on them with the right wind was easy and supprising them aswell , but to actually injure them was the tricky part. You had to aim at the eyes or the underbelly, atleast if you weren't strong enough to dirrectly pierce them.
Spike boars had needle like spikes growing from their backs, which they could release once stuck in the victim, they were about 150 cm tall and 2 metres long. They also had tusks comming from their mouth and a horn on their head.
While they may turn slowly ,in a straight line they are faster than a shadow cheeta.
So Teclos had to make the first shot count , either heavily wounding it or to alteast stunning it.
After that Gillard and Raplh would start attacking it, either trying to aim for the weak spots and harm it or to box it in or stop its charge.
Jumping up a tree, he drew his bow and infused his arrow with darkness mana.
Once he was ready and released the arrow, something peculiar happened, it bent mid air and changed direction.
Once he infused something he could control it ,offcourse this still had limits as he couldn't exactly bend metal, but he could change the direction of anything thrown or an arrow shot from the bow.
Normaly that would be the end of it ,but Teclos was trying out something new. Tipically he would go for the eyes and blind it with two shots , from there they would attack it repetedly in the underbelly to kill it.
This time altho the shot was the same as always aimed at the eyes, it had a little trick behind it.
When the arrow hit its target like usual, darkness rose from it. Forming sharp tentacle like knives and boring in to the pigs skull, searching for its brain and finding it.
The first second it reeled back from the hit like usual, but then it just collapsed to the ground and stopped moving.
Stunned Gillard had his mouth open and was speechless ,Ralph even fell down from his hiding spot in the trees.
"Hell YEA!!! I did it!" Jumping up and down from joy he screamed at the top of his lungs.
Gillard soon walked to him and asked,
"What the hell man? What did you do? There is no way your mana is strong enough to one shot that thing."
Teclos just smirked at him and said,
"I know, but it is versatile and easy to control, so i just made a hole in its brain."